An Aerospace Corporation analysis finds that the Space Force’s proposed budget surge is anything but uniform, with most of the growth locked into classified programs and a handful of high-priority missions.
The report, written by Robert Wilson, director of strategy and national security at the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy, examines the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 request of $71.3B for the service, a 120% jump over fiscal 2026 and the largest percentage increase for any US military branch since 1952.
Wilson cautions the figure is uncertain. The base request is $59.2B, with another $12.1B dependent on a separate reconciliation package in Congress, so the final number could land anywhere between the two. The White House’s longer-term plan projects about $69.6B for fiscal 2028.
More than three-quarters of the proposed increase is concentrated in classified activities, moving-target indication, missile warning and command and control. Wilson said that concentration surprised him, noting a service growing 120% might be expected to expand across every mission area.
The largest single program is space-based air moving-target indication at $7.9B, designed to track aircraft from orbit. The Space Data Network, a proliferated low Earth orbit mesh for moving military data, is second. Both started under the Golden Dome missile-defense account but appear as space superiority items in this request, a shift Wilson called mostly one of budget structure rather than mission.
The reconciliation package also carries $17.1B for Golden Dome, with $4.5B earmarked for space programs that sit outside the Space Force’s own request. Missile warning and tracking funding climbs to $3.6B for the LEO constellation and $1.4B for a medium Earth orbit layer, more than double last year.
